PerryScope By Perry Diaz Last May 15, President Rodrigo “Digong” Duterte met with Chinese President Xi Jinping during the “One Belt, One Road” summit in Beijing. Duterte told Xi, “We intend to drill oil there, if it’s yours, well, that’s your view, but my view is I can drill the oil, if there is some inside the bowels of the earth, because it is ours.” Read More …

PerryScope By Perry Diaz According to Chinese mythology, dragons are legendary creatures that symbolize power and strength. Today, the Chinese Dragon is China’s national symbol just like the eagle is to the U.S. and the bear to Russia. In 1949 Mao Zedong’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) drove the Kuomintang government out of Mainland China in a bloody civil war and established the People’s Republic of Read More …

PerryScope By Perry Diaz Just when President Rodrigo Duterte became comfortable sleeping in the security of his mosquito net, knowing that those dengue-dengue killer mosquitoes wouldn’t raid his house, a new menace rears it’s ugly head in the Benham Rise, just like the fabled Loch Ness monster. Yes, its appearance in the Benham Rise has Duterte’s men scramble for ways to deal with this “threat” Read More …

PerryScope By Perry Diaz As soon as the United Nations had awarded Benham Rise to the Philippines than China sets her eyes on this undersea landmass in the Philippine Sea. According to the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), this 13-million-hectare area off the coast of Aurora province is potentially rich in mineral, natural gas deposits, and manganese nodules that are vital in the Read More …

PerryScope By Perry Diaz On July 12, 2016, the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA), in a unanimous decision, delivered a “triple whammy” to China. In a press release, it said that the Arbitral Tribunal ruled that “there was no legal basis for China to claim historic rights to resources within the sea falling with the ‘nine-dash line’.” Secondly, the Tribunal reaffirmed that the rocks and Read More …

By Jonathan L. Mayuga BusinessMirror THE Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) on Thursday criticized Malacañang for naming the 13-million-hectare Benham Rise as an alternative fishing ground for Filipino fishermen. “First and foremost, it is not new and it cannot even be considered an alternative fishing ground. In fact, foreign fishing vessels have been ‘invading’ Benham Rise for almost a decade. Aquino should Read More …

By Alvin Elchico ABS-CBN News It’s off-limits to Chinese, Taiwanese fishermen MANILA – As China asserts its presence in the West Philippine Sea, Filipino fishermen are actively avoiding Scarborough Shoal in the waters just off Zambales province. Amid the tension in the western sea board, the Philippines has announced the opening of a new fishing ground in the east — the Benham Rise. Benham Rise, Read More …

PerryScope By Perry Diaz At the rate China is slicing the South China Sea like a link of salami, it won’t be long before the entire Western Pacific waters would become China’s “Lake Beijing,” which would include the South and East China Seas, and the Philippine Sea. China’s modern-day expansionism began when she attacked Vietnamese naval forces in the Paracel Islands (called Xisha Islands by Read More …

Source: Korea News Effective year 2012, the Philippines have augmented its area into 43 Million hectares from 30 Million hectares. The United Nations has approved the Philippines’ territorial claim to Benham Rise, an undersea landmass in the Pacific Ocean potentially rich in mineral and natural gas deposits, Environment Secretary Ramon Paje said. “We own Benham Rise now,” Paje said in a media interview. “This is Read More …

By Sara Fabunan Manila Standard Today The United Nations needed only to complete one more procedure before it completely awarded the ownership of Benham Rise in the Pacific Ocean to the Philippines, the Senate was told on Thursday. National Mapping and Resources Information Authority administrator Peter Tiangco said they had already submitted the maps of the area including its technical description a month ago. The Read More …